Fabrics in fashion- Basics of Handloom and Jacquard

Fabrics used in fashion and textile design are broadly of two major categories. Hand woven fabrics that are manually woven in looms or popularly called Handloom fabrics. The other kinds, woven in power loom or technically called Jacquards. The major difference between Handloom and Jacquard is that handloom fabrics are woven with clear warps and wefts, whereas, Jacquard fabrics are complex to weave as they are woven with repetitive patterns. 

There are 3 major Handloom fabrics which are widely used in textile design:

Cotton: The most common, widely used fabric with usage ranging from apparels to home décor. The fabric is skin friendly and has infinite scope in fashion designing.

Silk: This is one of the strongest natural fabric that is hand woven. Silk is known for its luster and elegance. Because of its exclusivity, and subtlety, yet rich in feel, silk is widely used for exclusive fashion.

Jute: A highly durable, strong fabric, Jute traditionally was used for making bags. But with evolution in fashion, Jute, as a fabric has joined the mainstream fashion as designers are experimenting with jute.

Jacquard woven fabrics are:

Damask- This is a reversible kind of fabric that comes mostly in floral, geometrical, scrolls foliage, and ornamental motifs. The Damask fabric has a subtle sheen that becomes noticeable in light.

Brocade- Brocade is a favorite with designers because of the multicolored silk threads used to weave the fabric. They are richly decorative fabrics and suitable for heavy apparel and outerwear. There is an addition of a supplementary weft that gives the illusion of ‘embossing’ on the cloth.

Dobby- Dobby is a patterned fabric and characterized by unique geometric patterns and extra texture on the cloth. It is often considered a tad fancy and comes is all patterns, colors, weights, and textures.

Checks & Stripes- Checks and stripes are created with alternating warps and wefts in contrast color threads. Woven in any natural fabric with blends like polyester, twill Stripes range from tiny pinstripes to 6-inch stripes while checks can be of any sizes.

Knowing about the different kinds of fabrics is very important for fashion aspirants. This helps in understanding which fabric is best suited for what kinds of designs. Whistling Woods-Neeta Lulla School of Fashion ensures that aspirants are aware about such finer details of designing.  

Trends for Wedding Season 2015

The wedding season is just around the corner and the recent fashion weeks (Lakme and Amazon Fashion Week) have given enough inspiration this time round. The wedding attire during the warm weather usually calls for bright colours and light fabrics. But this year’s collections have redefined the expected giving fashion a whole new level. Here are some of the trends that will be seen in the coming wedding season.

Black and White: Breaking from traditional colours like red and maroon, designers are going for the classical neutral colours- black and white. In weddings where most people go for bright colors, designers like Anamika Khanna have shown a newfound appreciation for the black and white combination. 

Mix-match Fabrics: The other aspect that designers are playing with is the fabrics. They are playfully blending fabrics like jute and silk and sheers that are being draped over linens. Designers like Payal Singhal have used soft materials to complement sturdy fabrics. 

Simplicity: Wedding wear generally has heavy work done on it. But this season designers are adopting simplicity by using minimal patterns. They are also going for deep colours like blue to bring out the effortless beauty. 

Bold Prints: The other side of simplicity was also explored by fashion designers this season. Be it geometric, floral or animal motif prints are a huge part of bridal wear. 

Neon attack: Neon is here to stay for a long time and now they are also entering the bridal wear. As a colour neon captures attention, therefore, will suit a bride perfectly. Fashion Designer Anushree Reddy showed the power of neon beautifully in her collection. 

These are just few trends that are prominent this wedding season that brides will don for various occasions. So, explore your own style and enjoy this wedding season!

Beauty with brains: Meet e-textiles

Science has come a long way and as long as there are curious innovators and various mysteries, science will keep on progressing. For now, let us talk about the technology advancements made. Impacting every possible field, technology has been welcomed in the fashion world too. Innovative designers have always looked for something new, clubbing science and technology with fashion to create something entirely out of this world. E-textiles are one such new invention that will revolutionize the world of fashion! The alluring aspect of e-textiles is the seamless integration between the fabric and diverse electronic elements. 

  

E-textiles is also known as Electronic textiles, smart/intelligent textiles/fabrics. These textiles are basically fabrics that enable computing, digital components and electronics to be embedded in them. Designers have converted these intelligent clothing into wearable technology. There are few features that are attributed to this innovation. The fabric is capable of changing colors along with displaying animating images. E-textiles are loaded with technological elements, yet surprisingly comfortable to wear. This branch of technology that deals with creating e-textiles is called Fibertronics.
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The elements required in creating this fabric has always been present in the nature, hence, the exploration and experiments have been conducted for a good century now. Ever since electricity came in, designers and engineers conducted experiments to achieve wearable technology. They were successful in creating illuminated necklace, hats; brooches etc. In fact, Electric Girl Lighting Company, a late 1800s company could provide light-studded evening gowns.

Museum of Contemporary Craft, New York City held a  pioneering exhibition during the 1968 called Body Covering which focused on the relationship between technology and apparel. The highlight of the show was the clothing that could inflate and deflate light up, and heat and cool itself. The collection was by Diana Dew, a designer who created a line of electronic fashion, including electroluminescent party dresses and belts that could sound alarm siren. Harry Wainwright created the first fully animated sweatshirt consisting of fiber optics, LEDs and a microprocessor that controlled the individual frames of animation resulting in a full color cartoon on the surface of apparel. In 1955, he invented the first machine that enabled fiber optics to be machine into fabrics. Wainwright continued and during an event 2012 demonstrate his inventive creation that changes color using any smartphone, indicate callers on mobile phones without a digital display and contains WIFI security features that protect purses and personal items from theft.

Lean Buechley's Creations

MIT researchers too began to develop merging the fabrics and electrons. They faced challenges when the explored integrating digital electronics with conductive fabrics and developed a method for embroidering electronic circuits. Lean Buechley from the MIT Media Lab created one of the first commercially available wearable Arduino based microcontrollers, called Lilypad Arduino. 

Lynne Bruning's Creations

Another innovator Lynne Bruning with her collection has got E-textiles more firmly in the wearable technology category. 

Many designers are experimenting with the fabrics fusing different elements, but E-textiles are by far the most fascinating fusion. With the progress in Fibertronics, that day is not far when we will make a call or listen to music by just touching the sleeve of our top!  

Styling a Fashionable Career

Becoming a Fashion Stylist is grabbing the attention of young fashion enthusiasts. Styling as a career has been around for a long time but is just coming into the spotlight. Before opting for the career, you must know what fashion stylist's entitles. A fashion stylist also referred as Wardrobe Stylist, this line of profession is different from a Costume designer or even Image Consultant both is often confused with styling. For a Costume designer films are the main area of work. 

The traditional job description of a stylist includes selecting correct clothes for editorial features, prints, television, advertising campaigns, movies, music videos, award functions, music concerts or any other public appearance by celebrities. Helping a designer put together a fashion show is also included in their job description. Basically the stylist decides what and how to wear a particular outfit. They collaborate with the designers, hair and makeup artist and create the perfect look.

Fashion, is said to be a tough industry to break into, which is true, the industry demands the best. To be an established stylist a lot of hard work and perseverance is required.

An interest in fashion alone would not suffice; you need to be fashion sensitive. The next step is formal fashion education. Even though you may not sketch or draw designs and are not the one making the decision on which fabric to use, knowledge about the subject is an absolutely necessary. ‘Know the fabrics’ should become one of the many mantras. Fashion business is another critical area that a formal education will provide. 

One way to strength your foundations is to get as many internships as possible. Create styling portfolio showing your creativity and skills. Be up to date with the current trends, this is extremely important. Research and read a lot, this will help in predicting future trends. A stylist has to be flexible to the changing trends and versatile to keep up with the ever changing fashion.

Pearl Shah, Tanya Ghavri and Pernia Qureshi are some of the top fashion stylist of our times. They broke through this touch fashion business making fashion a stylist a hot new profession.

Fashion industry has developed immensely in the recent years leading into new streams and the courses at Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of fashion encompassing every aspect of fashion industry which in turn can help you venture into these new budding areas of fashion confidently.  

Student spotlight: Creating a Mood board

Fashion designing as a profession and art has evolved immensely, being more accessible than ever. Different aspects of fashion education have evolved, whereas others are still emerging. Possessing knowledge about fabrics, colors, silhouette and cuts is imperative, but presenting a creation holds equal significance. A mood board is one of the methods that can be used to present a design or a collection creatively.

Mood boards (also known as inspiration boards) help to visualize the design concepts and ideas and explore the look and feel of a project. There is a uniformity of colors, fonts, images, themes or layout. The mood board becomes a tool through which a designer and clients can have a better understanding of the designs. This covers everything, from what it needs, how to take it forward, what makes it tick and more. The board also acts as a brainstorming device in which new ideas can be developed or old ones refined.

A large number of designers use mood boards, and it is not limited to the fashion industry alone. In fact, creating an inspiration board is common for interior designers, web designers, landscape designing, wedding planning or it could be a normal collage made at home by a college going photography enthusiastic.

A mood board could be created on anything- a PDF file, PowerPoint or on a physical board, bulletin or even in a notebook. The content of the board should reflect the designer’s idea. A fashion designer, for instance, would create a mood board in which the theme of their collection would be apparent, the colors to be used, sketches of the outfits, illustrations, fragments of the fabrics to be used, the source of inspiration through which the collection has been created and anything that will be of any relevance to the designer.

Pranali Oswal's Mood Board

Pranali Oswal, a fashion student of Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of Fashion, has created a mood board in which she has beautifully exhibited her design and the source of inspiration. The renderings that Pranali has done are influenced by graffiti either inspired by the colors or by using text as print on the garment. Regarding the mood board, Pranali believes that they are important to designers as it gives direction to the collection while expressing the theme on its own. The board showcases the designer’s thought process giving the ideas a visual expression. 

Pranali Oswal's Mood Board